Friday 7 September 2012

Life as usual

So we had our usual days sourcing food, going to the gym and relaxing.  I have now had my first 2 training sessions for the Drama Teaching job and am hopefully getting the hand of it.  Doing my first class on Sunday by myself...a little nervous.
Also have another job teaching English starting Monday.  Not so nervous about that as these are beginners who have no English at all so it's only up from the first class.  Pretty happy I won't have to manage much Grammar, someone should blow Grammar up!  It's way too hard!
That's me on the back of my Motor bike taxi...with my new helmet on!


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6 comments:

  1. kath lobb7 September 2012 at 16:12

    Looks like you are enjoying yourselves! Love the blog updates! Katherine and Michael xx

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  2. Anonymous7 September 2012 at 16:37

    Hi Leanne,
    Robyn and I check your blog every couple of days. We have been seriously considering taking a late "gap year" (a whole new developing demagraphic). One of the ideas was to teach in China. We have done a bit of on line research, and there seems to be a couple of "qualifications" commonly offered. I notice that you have completed a CELTA programme. Did you choose this programme for any particular reason?
    When I finished school I completed a 3 year Teaching Diploma in Sydney (at what is now called The Australian Catholic University).But I didn't go on to teach, and that was over 30 years ago. So I would like a course that would "bring me back up to speed". Any advice would be appreciated. Looks like you are having a wonderful time.
    Soph is leaving for Asia (Bali, K.L, Japan, China) next weekend.
    Thanks
    Rick & Robyn

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    Replies
    1. Leanne & Phil15 September 2012 at 04:11

      Hi Guys,
      The 2 quals are Tesol and CELTA. The CELTA course is well regarded and personally I feel I was well equiped when I completed it. I use many of the things I learnt there often. To do the course in Aus it's around $3000 each. It only cost us $1250 each to do it here in HCMC. Accommodation was cheap and we had a test run at living here as well. I would recommend the CELTA however it is a particularly difficult course. Some of the participants felt it was actually a year long Uni course crammed into 4 weeks. You feel like you've been through a war with the people you do the course with and commiserate with others who have done it.
      Hope that helps...good luck with your plans and seriously JUST DO IT! :)

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    2. Rick & Robyn17 September 2012 at 15:03

      Hi Leanne,
      thanks for the information. We are doing lots of research. Did you take course at Apollo in Saigon?
      Did you find adequate resource materials, compared with say taking the programme in Brisbane? Was there any advantage in making contacts in Saigon that lead to a teaching position?
      Soph is in Bali for a few weeks. She has an English teaching position in Beijing starting in a few months.

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    3. Leanne & Phil21 October 2012 at 05:36

      Hi Guys, Sorry I missed this reply comment. We DID take the course at Apollo in Saigon. There was plenty of resource materials and I would recommend not buying any books until you get here, there is a book shop here with great research books at good prices, a quarter of prices at home. The teachers we had training us at the time were Canadian and English and as it is a Cambridge course there was a moderator from Cambridge who visited at the end to ensure we had done enough training to achieve the certificate. It was SO much cheaper than Brisbane. what I did like about it was that we could see if we liked living here, that was our deciding factor in the move. We DIDN'T want to go home. My email address is dowlerlm@gmail.com Feel free to contact me there as well. Good luck. I've seen pics of Soph today. Leanne

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  3. Anonymous12 September 2012 at 03:18

    Enjoying reading the blog-rosemary

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